Full disclosure
From the Editor
Dr. Schwarzenberger is the former physician editor of DermWorld.
By Kathryn Schwarzenberger, MD, FAAD, June 1, 2023
Many of you know that I am married to an ob-gyn, so treating pregnant patients has always been easy for me. Even in the middle of the night, I could wake him up for advice in treating any number of dermatologic conditions. He was almost always able to allay my fears and reassure me that pregnancy does not make all drugs off limits. His help was invaluable, because, as our feature article this month on the safety of dermatologic drugs in pregnancy suggests, the available information on drug safety has not always provided much clarity. Hopefully, the new risk category system will make these decisions simpler.
We chose this topic because we feel it is an important one for dermatologists. Many of the patients we treat have child-bearing potential, and we must consider the ramifications of the treatments we use both now and in the future on both pregnancy outcomes and fertility. We need to know about the safety of our medications, not just so that we do not give a potentially harmful drug to a pregnant person, but also so we do not deny beneficial treatment to someone. Over the years, I have seen pregnant women woefully undertreated by doctors (and more recently by APPs) afraid to prescribe any number of medications in pregnancy, or, more seriously, delaying biopsy of worrisome skin lesions because of a misinformed fear of using anesthetics in pregnancy. I appreciate our colleagues teaching us about this topic in this article and through other AAD educational events. Our pregnant patients deserve our best and safest care and we hope this helps.
Few of us love online reviews, but I think it is fair to say that they are here to stay. The good ones potentially help, while the bad ones really hurt. The pain is compounded when bad reviews are false, posted either by mistake or with malicious intent. Personally, I would love to see all of them go away, as I have long felt that patients use reviews to blame physicians for many aspects of the health care system they cannot control, ranging from the price of parking to the patient’s health insurance co-pay. Unfortunately, because reviews occur within the context of a patient-physician relationship, care must be taken when (and if) responding to not violate HIPAA regulations. Our feature article this month “Troll control” offers some strategies for safely and effectively responding to online reviews. In some cases, the best strategy may be to do nothing at all, although we all acknowledge how hard that can be.
We wrap up our two-part series on leaders in dermatology this month, highlighting some of our specialty’s top leaders. We hope their leadership journey stories will inspire you to consider joining in on the fun. I know that my years on the AAD Board of Directors, while some of my busiest years, were also some of the best. I was able to engage with other members of the Academy in a way I would have never otherwise done and help move our specialty forward in areas that were important to me and my colleagues. I made friends I look forward to growing old with. June is the month to apply for a position on 2024 Academy councils, committees, and task forces. Please consider applying. Unfortunately, not everyone will get a spot the first time around, but the only certain way to not get appointed is to not apply. I promise you will not regret it. We all have much to offer; please let us hear your voice.
